Friday, 24 June 2016

THE GARDEN IS MAKING NOISE

The bees are buzzing around the garden. It is a sight, and a sound, that brings a smile to the faces of most of the citizens of the PUTP. It means raspberries are only a week or two away. The bushes this year are overflowing with blossoms. Perhaps a combination of drastic cutting in the fall of older canes and extra rope supporting the canes this year has opened up the plant to allow more sunlight (and bees) to get in. The garden specialists will find out in a few weeks.

Baby raspberries are growing fast.

Below the bushes the kale is making great progress, it is a wonderful green and tall, and has already been mixed into a few salads.

Peas are a plant that has never been cultivated in the PUTP, but, even with the lack of experience with this plant the peas are stretching their tiny tendrils and quickly making their way up the jute and stick supports.

Another new addition to the garden is parsnips. There was some worry as parsnip seed germination takes up to three weeks. Germination this long is rare around these parts. It was thought that this crop failed to take root, until late last week when a few minuscule leaves broke the surface.

The East Garden is working out great. There have been no holes in the lawn or the vegetable garden since this rustic sandbox was put into use.

Wednesday, 22 June 2016

A FABULOUS FATHER'S DAY

Father, Father, kids and kids

Father's Day was full of activity. The citizens of the PUTP packed up their fishing equipment and headed out to their secret fishing spot. They met Grampa out there, whom the children would describe as an 'expert angler' or more likely 'a man obsessed with all things fishing', and they set their hooks.

After an hour, and many fish caught, the activities changed from fishing to just playing in the water.

"It was nice to go fishing with the kids," said PUTP Father Matt, "it reminds me of when I was young and would go fishing with my Father." A tradition passed down through the generations continues in the PUTP.

Friday, 3 June 2016

Garden area increased

Kale is sprouting fast

Earlier this season the garden committee approved a project (the East Garden) to increase garden space by an additional 20 square feet (approx). This represents an additional 30% increase in overall gardening space. This big project took place over the long weekend. However, a long weekend was not required as the construction of the box took approx fifteen minutes and the supplies used were salvaged pieces of wood, from various other projects, that were headed for the landfill. It may not be the prettiest garden, but, it is expected to be productive...and it was free!

The East Garden - currently houses one dwarf cherry tree

This new garden, The East Garden, is to be a hybrid type of garden. One that serves two purposes. The second purpose is to grow additional vegetables and berries. The primary purpose is to prevent lawn destruction. Over the past several years the back lawn of the PUTP has been dug up many times. There are random divits and larger potholes scattered across the entire area. The hope is that those citizens of the PUTP that have a need to dig will do so in the new garden, thereby centralizing 'destruction' to this one area. This may be referred to as the 'rustic sandbox' in the future.

Toys to some, tools of destruction to others

Some of our young gardeners are spending time learning the ways of the plants. They are planting, watering, weeding and getting their hands dirty. One enthusiastic young garden pupil is constantly testing many of the age old gardening 'rules'. We often take some of these 'rules' as law and never think about questioning them. Which is why it is so refreshing to have young minds helping out in the garden. I can tell you that the age old rule that plants need leaves to live ... is true. The bean plants that recently sprouted appeared to be too leafy. Oskie removed the leaves to help out and ended up confirming the belief that leaves are an essential part of the plant. Hopefully, this lesson applies to all other plants and Oskie does not need to repeat the experiment to be satisfied with his initial results.